Who would have thunk it…

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Apple lowers its forecast? Say it isn’t so. But shares of the tech giant are taking a hit today as the world’s largest and most expensive company dealt a major buzzkill to Wall Street yesterday with earnings that left many Apple enthusiasts downright bereft. The Cupertino-based company announced that it was expecting to hit between $49 billion to $51 billion in sales for the next quarter, much to the horror of analysts who expected Apple would try to bank $51.13 billion. The company also sold just (gasp!) 47.5 million phones instead of the expected 49 million. Profits hit $10.68 billion adding $1.85 per share. Except that analysts were still disappointed because Apple beat those earnings by a small 4 cents per share margin. And then it got weird. Apple brass said that sales of the Apple Watch beat expectations. The problems is no actual figures were given. So we’re just going to have to take their word for it. But, the Apple watch allegedly sold better than both the iPhone and iPads, in the same period following their launches. However, once again, we’re going to have to take their word for it. So what does this all mean for sure? Who knows. What was so peculiar is that because everyone was so focused on the numbers that they didn’t like, it obscured some other impressive figures. For instance, Apple more than doubled its sales in China from a year ago to $13.23 billion. Unfortunately, China’s economy is kind of iffy these days, so there’s no guarantee that sales there will grow significantly…or at all. So maybe the analysts do have some legitimate gripes after all.

The home is where it’s at…

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It’s official. Sales of existing homes in the U.S. have nailed their highest pace, a whopping 3.2%, in eight years. Not since February of 2007, way before the prospect of a recession reared it’s ugly head, have people rushed out to scoop up pre-existing homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. 5.49 million homes took on new owners when analysts only expected 5.4 million to be sold. Experts think this increase might have a bit to do with a steady job market, not to mention the fact that mortgage rates are slowly climbing their way back up and people want to get in their purchases before those rates get too high. Add to that a limited supply of homes and you’ve got yourself some houses that are getting a lot more buck for their bang. In fact. the median cost to buy a house is up to $236,400, 6.5% more than it was last year at this time.

Coke is it…

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Behold, the world’s largest beverage company has beat the Street. This, despite the fact that for the last decade, the soft drink industry has been experiencing some major declines. This decline has been happening overseas as well, which is a huge problem since 40% of Coca Cola’s sales come from international markets. In any case, Coca Cola scored a profit increase of 20% at $3.1 billion, adding 63 cents per share on $12.2 billion in sales. Analysts only expected 60 cents per share. In fact, it was the beverage maker’s first quarterly sales gain in two years. I guess someone gets to keep their job for yet another quarter. So how did the Atlanta-based company manage to finagle this beat? By simply raising raising prices, but in a way hardly felt by consumers, at least most of them. A tactic that is both so simple, yet so genius. Then Coca Cola pulled another genius move when it started selling smaller cans of soda for more money. Can you believe that? Less product for more cash. And consumers drank it up. As for its “Share a Coke with…” campaign…it worked. Just wish they made a can with my name on it. Oh well. Kudos, Coca Cola brass. Perhaps you could impart some of your fiscal wisdom on Greece now.